Game.



No. 647,887. Patented Apr. I7, |900.

' .L w. SMITH.

G A M E.

(Application ld Nov. 3, 1899.)

(N o M o d el.)

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lllll mumlm UIUHINIUINIIHNIWIUUIIHUINWNHININWUUIUHHWINIIUIHUWNWHNHHMI mmm UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

.IOIIN VINSOR SMITH, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR OF ONE# THIRD TO ALBERT A. NUNALLY, OF SAME PLACE.

GAME.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 647,887, dated April 17, 1900. Application iiled November 3, 18919. Serial No. 7 35,708. (No model.)

.T0 all whom, t may concern.-

Be it known that I, J oHN WINsoR SMITH, of Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Games, of which general character of what are commonly known as checkers, it being the object of the invention to give increased interest and zest to the game by rendering it more diflicult than ordinary checkers and at the same time addingv thereto a military aspect.

The invention consists in certain novel fea tures of'construction and combinations of parts, the essential elements of which are re cited in the appended claims anda preferred form of embodiment of which is illustrated in the accompanying drawings and specifically described hereinafter. v

Reference is to be had to the annexed drawings and to the letters and figures marked thereon, forming apart of this speciiication, the same letters and figures designating the same parts or features, as the case may be, wherever they occur.

Of the drawings, Figure l is a plan View of a game-board embodying my invention. Fig. 2 is a detail sectional Viewv thereof, taken through the line 2 2 of Fig. 1.

In the drawings in the center of theboard there is a space, which may be White in color, marked 5, vwhile at opposite corners of the white space (indicated by figures 2 and 4) are spaces which may be supposed to be in yellow, and at the other opposite corners are spaces (indicated by the figures 1 and 3) which may be supposed to be in blue. The ive spaces thus designated form a square, and from side to side and end to end of this square are spaces somewhat in the form and character of an ordinary checker-board. At opposite corners of the ve spaces l 2 3 4 5 in the center are spaces U S and E, which are termed color-spaces, for the reason that these spaces are usually colored in the representation of a flag of one of the nations of the earth, and usually, though not necessarily,

the blocks forming these color-spaces are removable, the board beingrecessed, as indicated at fin Fig. 2, for the reception of the color-block, 'which may be removed from the recess by placing the linger below the board and pressing against the block through the hole g, formed in the bottom of the space f. The spaces in the king-line, which may be entered to be crowned, are designated by stars. The spaces in the king-line not designated byrstars are impregnable and cannot be entered. l

The game may be supposed to be played with eight men placed in the three end rows on the colored spaces, the colored spa-ces being indicated by parallel lines. From these spaces upon which the men are placed they "may be moved diagonally toward the kingline, passing around the five central spaces designating the strongholdj? the central space 5 within the other four spaces being the fortress, theseterms being used merely for the purpose of explaining the nature and design of the invention.

Asthus far described the game may pro ceedas in ordinary checkers, jumping men and capturing them wherever possible.

It is necessary to'gain the king-line in one of the spaces marked by a star and be crowned before the player can return to enter the fortress through the stronghold, and this latter can be dne only by passing through the enemys colors E or -U S, as the case may be that is to say, it is necessary for a playerstartingmon the lower side of the board as it is viewed in Fig. 1 and reaching the king row and being crowned andV returning to pass through the colors E and the space 3 before the fortress 5 can be reached. Any player reaching the fortress 5 will score, say, live points. It is proposed to be forbidden by the rules of the game for a player to enter the fortress or stronghold through his own colors. The fortress or central space 5 must be reached, as before stated, from the enemys colors, and a player having reached the enemys colors may jump over his enemy occupying thespace l or 3 into the fortress 5, capturing the man on either the space l or 3, as the case may be. So long as the fortress 5 is occupied by a man 2 f 647,887 k l it cannot heagain entered. When a regular l stronghold he 'is entitledLaccording tothe allowable and that all jumps must betaken,

y such failure constituting the forfeiture of the I5 wise the `man rea'chingthe spaced is entitled,l

l y i'. s Y

" at a time-thatiain a single game-fand the vgame is concluded assoon as't'he last man of rules of the game, to an additional five points, or a total of ten for that particular move.

- Itis contemplated that jumping backward as Well as forward from the fortress shall be no failure to take a ljump beingallowable,

man which might have jumped.

in the king row. Aman reaching the space A is entitled to score a number, providedsuch man hasrbe'en in the strongho1d,.but otherto merely becrowned.

` Onlyftwo colors, U Sv and E, areemployed the :opposing playerjhas been captured, the

" lsame as in anordinary game of checkers.'y lThe -V`gamejs determined by the nulnberof points ymade by 'eachvplayen If, however, no points s l p I 'should V'have been scored-Aonv either side, the 1 gameis decided asl in the case v@fiordi-nary qcheckers. l

Theforegoingf-arelthe princi-pal points-fof rule in one lform in which the game may be played and are given merely to illustrate the nature and character of kthe game and not as exposing all of the rules or all of the points which may be employedin playing thegalne.

It will be at once observed that the gameris susceptible of many changes and rules which ,add materially to the zest and interest pf, a

game of checkers. A

Having thus explained the nature of the invention and described a way of constructing and using the same,though without attempting to set forthk all of the forms in which it maybe made or all of 'the modes of its'use, it

y is declared that what is claimed is- Another rule ofthe game is that retreating l beforeorafter passing the colors shall notbe allowed until the man so passing has been crowned byreachin g one of the starredspa'ces 2O l. A game-board recessed and perforated in the bottoms of the recesses and hremovable as described; y v

v2. A game-board having'a central group of spaces distinguished Vfrom each yotherin pairs and surrounding a space or square, the board r being, recessed at diagonallyLopposite corners y'to this specification, in the presenceof two subscribing witnesses, this 15th day of `Sepl j lJOHNFWINSC-)R SMITH. X'Vitne'sseszgf ARTHUR W.`CRossLEY.

YyANN-mnhBAILEY.l

'pieces occupying said recesses, substantially v 

